Pablo G.

Debenedetti

Pablo G. Debenedetti is the Class of 1950 Professor in Engineering and Applied Science, professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and dean for research. His office supports Princeton’s research enterprise by administering research funding, building relationships with corporations and foundations, licensing University inventions, ensuring research integrity and overseeing research involving human subjects and animals.

In his research, Debenedetti applies theoretical and computational tools to the molecular engineering of aqueous systems, in areas ranging from the long-term preservation of biomolecules and pharmaceutical compounds to water desalination. His interests span the thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of liquids and glasses, protein thermodynamics, nucleation, metastability and the origin of homochirality in biological systems.

He is the author of one book, Metastable Liquids, and more than 300 scientific articles. His professional honors include the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation (1987); the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award from the Dreyfus Foundation (1989); a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1991); the Professional Progress (1997), Walker (2008) and Institute Lecturer (2013) awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; the John M. Prausnitz Award in Applied Chemical Thermodynamics (2001); the Joel Henry Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical and Experimental Chemistry of Liquids from the American Chemical Society (2008); and the Guggenheim Medal from the Institution of Chemical Engineers (2017). 

Debenedetti received the Distinguished Teacher Award from Princeton’s School of Engineering (2008) and the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching (2008), Princeton’s highest distinction for teaching. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society.

Debenedetti obtained his B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Buenos Aires University, Argentina, and his M.S and Ph.D. degrees, also in chemical engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1985.